Businesses only get one chance to make a good first impression. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scenario where the first impression often determines whether a visitor becomes a loyal customer or simply clicks away into the never-ending expanse of cyberspace, perhaps never to return.
Moreover, across industries, organizations have needed to pivot quickly and act confidently to deliver exceptional user experiences for their customers. In today’s rapidly growing digital landscape, those that have enabled seamless digital customer experiences while maintaining privacy and security have set themselves apart from the competition. The recent Digital Trust Index research confirmed this advantage, which revealed that data security and seamless digital experiences have become non-negotiables for today’s customers.
In an era of instant gratification and limitless options, a customer’s online experience is crucial. For instance, the same research revealed that a whopping 80% of customers expect a fully digital onboarding experience, and that experience needs to be smooth.
It's not just about showcasing products or services anymore; it's about offering an immersive journey that leaves a lasting impact.
Employees Are Customers, Too
It’s not only about customers, either. Businesses must also address the evolving expectations of employees because improving employee productivity is essential for companies to remain competitive and efficient. This means building environments that are conducive to focused work and collaboration.
At the same time, they must protect all their interactions and sensitive data and maintain the integrity of digital operations. This is critical for fostering trust and safeguarding both customer and company interests. Any business that can strike the right balance between delivering excellent online experiences, boosting employee productivity, and maintaining stringent security protocols is already a step ahead when it comes to securing a competitive edge and ensuring sustainable business growth in the digital era.
Gone For Good
Customers will abandon a brand if this process demands too much personal information (29%), has poor online support (27%), or if they are worried about how their data is being used (26%). It’s clear that the more customers trust an organization, the more likely they are to engage on a deeper level and that data security and smooth digital experiences go hand in hand.
In fact, the vast majority (89%) will only share their personal information if certain caveats are met, meaning that businesses must tread a fine line between security, privacy, and experience, all ultimately leading up to trust. Regarding the employee experience, the research showed that only 51%of employees believe their employer values the importance of an excellent digital experience, with complex password resets and trouble accessing accounts remotely hampering productivity.
Addressing Business Needs
Businesses need to improve, which is why identity management is becoming crucial in today's competitive landscape. Robust identity management can benefit businesses in several ways.
1. Improved Security: Identity management ensures that only authorized individuals have access to specific resources or information within a system. Implementing robust authentication methods and access controls and enforcing principles of least privilege helps mitigate the risk of unauthorized access, data breaches, and insider threats.
2. Maintaining Compliance: All industries are subject to regulatory requirements regarding data protection and privacy, particularly those that handle sensitive customer data, such as financial services and healthcare. Managing identities facilitates compliance by putting the mechanisms in place to enforce policies and audit access to sensitive data, helping businesses meet legal obligations and avoid penalties.
3. Enabling “Bring-Your-Own-Identity (BYOI)”:
All companies are looking for new approaches to digital authentication, and BYOI (or sometimes referred to as BYOID) empowers their customers and employees to use their preferred digital identities across various platforms, improving user experience and eliminating the need to remember multiple credentials. Users can also choose which aspects of their identity to share and can benefit from streamlined access to services and applications, reducing friction and enhancing productivity all around.
4. Scalability: As organizations grow, managing user identities and access permissions becomes more complex. Identity management solutions enable scalability by providing centralized control and automating user provisioning and de-provisioning, authentication, and authorization processes. This approach streamlines administration tasks and adapts to changing organizational needs without compromising security.
5. Better Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Identity management solutions can contribute to overall IT operations cost reductions by streamlining user management processes, minimizing the risk of security incidents and data breaches, and improving operational efficiency. Organizations can lower the TCO associated with managing identities and access rights by automating repetitive tasks, reducing help desk calls related to access issues, and consolidating identity-related infrastructure.
Standing Out in the Crowd
Identity is a critical enabler for organizations seeking to set themselves apart by facilitating seamless customer experiences while upholding privacy and security standards, all without impacting the user experience. Organizations need to look at Identity strategically across consumers, third parties and partners, and employees. Identity cannot be just another checkbox on the overall cybersecurity operation.
Identity management solutions currently on the market can help organizations strike this balance and run silently in the background, employing robust authentication mechanisms and access control to help build trust and loyalty in the long run.
